


In a New Light

by sturms_sun_shattered



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Pre-Romance, vaguely diplomatic mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturms_sun_shattered/pseuds/sturms_sun_shattered
Summary: Revali is not certain of the purpose of their mission.  Mipha wishes she had been sent with anyone else.
Relationships: Mipha/Revali (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 71





	In a New Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [acacias](https://archiveofourown.org/users/acacias/gifts).



> Beta'd by the incomparable [unavoidablekoishi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidablekoishi).

Around the edge of Bloodleaf Lake in Northern Akkala, nestled among the turning leaves of the smooth-barked trees, was a small Hylian settlement. The settlement itself was unremarkable, made up of a dozen cottages where hunters and their families dwelt. The hides of deer and boar were stretched on frames to cure in the sunlight where the woods had been cleared, and children chased each other between the trees, the afternoon light filtering amber and gamboge through the leaves.

Even the remains of the Sheikah ruins in this area were frankly unimpressive, Revali thought. All that remained were a few crumbled columns, their pitted surfaces overgrown with moss, and a trail of weathered stone lanterns. But it wasn’t the settlement or the ruins they had come to see. Why he and Mipha were needed for such an excursion was beyond his comprehension, but if the Zora princess was as irritated about being dragged to the edge of the continent to see some blue flame, she didn’t show it.

She probably enjoyed this, he thought uncharitably as he saw the easy way she spoke with the Sheikah researcher who led them through the woods—sweet with the smell of autumnal decay, though the rest of Hyrule still basked the glorious summer. Mipha seemed to revel in those diplomatic situations, always poised no matter how it seemed those around her were wasting her time. The ritual of exchange came easily to her, Revali observed, a product of her royal upbringing. Revali could claim no such refined manners—the Rito were an informal people, and the world of diplomacy remained a labyrinth of unknown custom to him.

How seeing this blue flame was meant to help the Champions anyway, Revali had no idea. He had only consented to this excursion under the advice of the village elder. His time would be better served training at the Flight Range or in Medoh’s cockpit, but he schooled his expression into something that a representative of his people ought to wear on such an occasion. If the Sheikah were offended by his disinterest, that was no fault of his.

Having passed through the settlement to higher ground, Mipha glanced back at Revali, his brow furrowed as though there were more important things on his mind. He always seemed to be aloof in such situations, and Mipha sorely wished that Daruk or Urbosa could have been sent in his stead. At least then she would not be left to all of the niceties that the situation warranted.

Mipha turn abruptly as a horrified scream from the settlement startled the party. Beside her, Revali took to the air to see what had caused the distress.

“What do you see?” she called up to him, as she heard the din of growing chaos in the valley.

“Bokoblins...perhaps twenty.”

“Get to safety,” Mipha told the researcher as she drew her trident from where it was slung diagonally across her back.

Mipha leapt into the lake with a running start, and lost sight of where Revali had flown ahead. She had little time to think about this before she pulled herself to the shore and clashed with the bokoblins. Spinning her trident in her grip, Mipha squared up to meet the oncoming horde, the creatures of red, blue, and black emerging from the woods like a colony of insects. 

The few Hylian hunters who remained drew their bows—though in the heat of battle their arrows flew dangerously past Mipha. Behind her, she heard the frantic cries of women and children as they sought escape, and she waded deeper into the conflict, eager to provide them cover. She dispensed with her foes quickly, her speed with the trident making up for her small stature.

Mipha had trained in the art of war from such a young age that—though she abhorred the idea of dealing death—she did so unflinchingly. Focused wholly on the task as she cut a path through the swarm, Mipha shut out the frightened cries of the Hylians around her as they began to break ranks and flee. Within moments, the tiny line of archers had crumbled.

“Hold the line!” Mipha shouted, but her delicate voice was lost in the chaos. The bokoblins surged around her as the Hylians fled in fear. Mipha swung her trident in a defensive arc, fearing she would be overrun as the Hylians were.

Above her she heard a clarion screech—seeing the dark blue plumage in the gaps between the trees, she realized that this was Revali’s war cry. 

“Return to your positions!” he called to the Hylians below as he nocked an arrow. Revali’s arrival emboldened the Hylians, and they regrouped as the bokoblins around them began to fall from the arrows above.

As the tide turned in their favour, the bokoblins began their retreat, and Mipha pressed forward, pushing them back to the depths of the forest. In normal circumstances, she would be inclined to let them escape, but these dark days warranted a harsher approach. If these creatures were let to live, they would only come back to harry the settlement once more.

Mipha advanced into the autumnal woods, and the creatures—seeing her on her own—changed their strategy. It was only a moment before she was surrounded by screeching bokoblins. No stranger to fighting on all sides, Mipha swung her trident in an arc before dispensing with two foes in a fluid motion. The first met its fate on the pointed butt of the trident when it ventured into Mipha’s defensive perimeter, the second was swiftly caught on the prongs.

Mipha yanked at the weapon, the fork caught fast the bone and sinew of her injured foe. As the bokoblins saw her struggling, they closed in. With all of her strength, she shoved the weapon into the bokoblin who flailed upon its end, eliciting a porcine squeal of agony.

The inhuman sound from below caught Revali’s attention. As he saw the delicate Zora struggling below, her sash stained with a spray of blood from a fallen enemy, he was surprised by the sudden surge of respect he felt for her unexpected grit. He nocked an arrow and released it into a bokoblin which threatened Mipha with a thrown rock from behind, then masterfully picked off several who surrounded her. This was far more than the twenty or so Revali had seen from above, he realized grimly.

Revali glanced back to the settlement to see that the inhabitants had fled to higher ground to regroup. Below him, Mipha had managed to reclaim her weapon from the enemy who had died upon it, and set to reestablishing the perimeter around herself with calculated movements, precise and fluid, as though the trident were made of the very waters she called home. Skilled though she was, Revali could see the advancing threat. Because of her courage, the Hylians were safe, but Mipha would soon be swarmed.

Irritated that Mipha had so brazenly walked into danger, Revali attempted to clear the woods of those who swarmed around her. It quickly became apparent that there were more targets than Revali had arrows. Gritting his beak, he landed with his back to Mipha, and drew his feathered edge that he might stand in defence of this foolish princess—it wouldn’t do for him to be blamed for her death, after all.

“The Hylian’s have retreated,” he called back to her. “We must leave!”

“I see no route by which to escape, save through this horde,” she responded, her voice clear and calm as she cut through yet another bokoblin who pressed in too closely.

Revali clenched his beak against the blow from a bat that glanced off of his wing. There would be only one way out of this, he realized.

“Accept my apologies, Princess,” he said, not bothering to hide the biting ire that had entered his tone. He sheathed his blade and dropped to one knee, mustering the concentration he needed to summon his gale through the pain in his wing and the chaos around them.

As the cyclone of wind whipped at his braids, he spread his wings and caught Mipha’s arms in his talons as the gale lifted them. Though she was not heavy, the combined weight strained Revali’s already smarting wing as he lifted them to safety on higher ground.

Mipha was too frightened to scream as she was pulled swiftly into the air without warning. As the trees seemed to shrink away below her, she heard Revali grimace as he faltered in flight, and her heart pounded suffocatingly in her throat.

Revali seemed to muster something from deep within himself, and managed to glide the rest of the way to safety. As Mipha’s feet touched grass, she very nearly collapsed in relief, but rested the spiked butt of her trident in the ground as she tried to steady her frightened heart. The momentary relief she had felt was replaced by a surge of irritation at the audacity of the Rito Champion.

“You might have warned me,” she told him a little sharply, her gentle nature inhibiting the full expression of righteous ire.

“It was you who wandered into danger,” Revali responded with similar tension coiled in his tone. “I was merely ensuring that neither of our peoples had to seek replacement pilots for our divine beasts.”

“You needn’t have interfered,” Mipha told him, though as she watched the awkward way he held his wing, she felt the brief anger dissipate into a more pragmatic concern.

“You made it impossible not to,” Revali retorted, his eyes catching hers as she stared at his wing, and turned away from her a little.

“Are you injured?” she asked, reaching forward.

Revali withdrew in alarm. He was willing to admit that he had gained a— _very tiny_ —bit of respect for Mipha as he watched her fight. To see that the Zora princess had steel beneath her gentle exterior had surprised him, but not nearly enough for him to let her try her magic touch on him. It seemed mostly reserved for repairing that Hylian Champion anyway.

“Revali,” she said, in what would have been a chiding tone had anyone else said it.

“It’s fine, I assure you,” he said, though he could barely get the words out through his clenched beak.

“You used your Goddess given power to rescue me,” she said gently. “Let me do the same for you.”

“I’m hardly in need of rescuing,” he scoffed, but he didn’t resist as she took his wing.

Revali tried to keep the pain out of his expression as the cool, delicate hand felt for damage. Though his wing throbbed, he had never felt the touch of a Zora before, and was strangely fascinated by the way her scales seemed to catch on the barbs of his feathers. As she came to the spot where the bat had made contact, he forced himself not to yank his wing back, but could not suppress his sharp intake of breath.

“I don’t think you’ve broken anything,” she said softly.

But it was swelling, Mipha noticed. If anyone else were with him on this journey, she thought, he would have likely hidden it. Revali may have been a skilled archer, but it was hard to see past the stubborn fool in front of her. She held her hand out over the injury and closed her eyes. As she thought of those brilliant blue eyes, as she always did when she healed, they were suddenly punctuated by sharp green.

When Mipha had finished, she glanced up at Revali to see those same eyes staring at her, softer than she had ever seen them. For a moment, she held his wing in her hand, surprised by the softness of the feathers as she lingered. Too long, she realized as he slowly withdrew his wing.

Revali broke eye contact first, overwhelmed by the intimacy of what had just happened between them. Trying to clear his head of the blissful calm of Mipha’s expression as she had healed him, he opened and clenched his hand, turning his wing as he inspected her work. 

“Your skills are admirable,” he told her in begrudging thanks.

“I appreciate you rescuing me,” she said softly.

“I couldn’t very well leave you,” he conceded. “Who knows the harm it could have done to diplomatic relations between our people.”

Mipha’s small smile hinted at an understanding of something beyond his words, and Revali turned sharply away from her, unable to deny that something about how he regarded her had changed in the course of the battle.

“Perhaps we ought to find our guide,” she suggested, and together they headed up the hill to locate the Hylians and the Sheikah researcher. Mipha glanced at Revali as he walked alongside her, intrigued by her discovery of his deeply buried selflessness. 

It was in a new light that they saw each other as they walked together up the worn path.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy early birthday to my first fandom friend! I hope you enjoyed my attempt at Miphvali ♥


End file.
